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Agassi, Nadal in Second Round Action

August 10, 2005 - The second round at the Rogers Masters gets underway Wednesday at the Stade Uniprix with top seed Rafael Nadal, No. 4 seed and three-time champion Andre Agassi, No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 6 Gaston Gaudio and No. 8 Mariano Puerta leading the way. In addition, No. 15 seed Richard Gasquet takes on Sebastien Grosjean in a first time meeting between the top two French players on the ATP circuit.

Court Central's first match of the day features serve-and-volleyers Max Mirnyi and British No. 2 Greg Rusedski. Mirnyi, who is 27-18 on the season and two wins shy from his 200 th career win, has reached ATP finals in Memphis (l. to Carlsen) and Nottingham (l. to Gasquet). This is Mirnyi's seventh appearance in the Rogers Masters and he holds a 9-6 record. Mirnyi's lone ATP singles title came in Rotterdam in 2003.

Rusedski has already claimed an ATP title this year in Newport (d. Spadea). He is 5-7 all-time at the Rogers Masters and he is trying to reach the third round for the first time since 1992 when he lost to eventual champion Andre Agassi in Toronto. His 221 wins on hard courts rank fourth among active players. Rusedski is 0-2 lifetime against Mirnyi. The last time they met was in the second round of St. Petersburg, Russia in October 2001 and Mirnyi won 7-6, 6-4.

The second match on Court Central matches two of the oldest players in the field with 35-year-old Andre Agassi and 33-year-old Jonas Bjorkman meeting for the fifth time (Agassi leads 4-0). Agassi is riding a six match-winning streak after capturing the Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles on July 31. Agassi, who is currently No. 7 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Rankings, will be looking to win his 35 th match at the Rogers Masters. The three-time champion holds a 34-10 record here and has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in eight of his 13 appearances.

Bjorkman, who qualified into the main draw, turned in his best result this season with a quarterfinal appearance in 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Ancic) in June. The former World No. 4 is 11-16 on the year with all of his wins coming on grass or hard courts. He has five career ATP titles ( 1997--Auckland, Indianapolis, Stockholm; 1998--Nottingham; 2002—Nottingham). Bjorkman is No. 129 in this week's INDESIT ATP Entry Rankings.

In the third match, French countrymen Sebastien Grosjean and Richard Gasquet will be battling for a spot in the third round. The clash between the 27-year-old Grosjean and the 19-year-old Gasquet will be their first. Grosjean is 23-16 on the season and has reached the final in Houston (l. Roddick). Gasquet is 25-7 and he captured his first career ATP title in Nottingham as well as a final appearance at ATP Masters Series Hamburg (l. to Federer). Gasquet is only one of three players (Marat Safin and Rafael Nadal) to defeat top-ranked Roger Federer this season.

In the night match, top seed and No. 2 ranked Rafael Nadal will keep his hopes alive for a career-first ATP hard-court title when he takes on Brazil's Ricardo Mello. His win over Carlo Moya on Tuesday was his 60 th of the season (60-8). Nadal has also won his last 11 matches since a second round loss to Gilles Muller at Wimbledon. The 19-year-old Nadal is the first teenager to win 60 matches in a season since 2000 when Lleyton Hewitt went 61-19. Nadal defeated Mello 26 62 64 on clay on Feb. 19 this year in the semifinals of Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. He went on to win the title.

On the first match of the Court National Bank, Taylor Dent will battle Germany's Nicolas Kiefer. Dent is coming from a come-from behind win against No. 13 seed Ivan Ljubicic where he was down a set and a break. The Indianapolis (l. to Ginepri) and Adelaide (l. to J. Johansson) finalist will be playing for a potential clash against Andre Agassi.

Kiefer, a semifinalist in Toronto last year, won the previous meeting 76 63 in 2002 Indian Wells. The former World No. 4 has advanced to four quarterfinals ( Indianapolis, Indian Wells, Adelaide, and Dubai) this year.

Sixth seed and 2004 Roland Garros champion Gaston Gaudio takes on veteran Kenneth Carlsen for the first time. Both players rallied to win their first round matches in three sets as Gaudio defeated Davide Sanguinetti 16 76(5) 75 and Carlsen took out Canadian wild card Rob Steckley 57 64 63.

Former World No. 1 Juan Carlo Ferrero will take on countryman David Ferrer for the third on his career for a spot on the Round of 16. Ferrer leads Ferrero 2-0 in head-to-heads. Last time both players met managed to defeat Ferrero in three sets in Miami 2005. Ferrero is looking for his first ATP title since Valencia 2003 while Ferrer's last title came in 2002 Bucharest.

The 1999 champion and last year's semifinalist Thomas Johansson will play Xavier Malisse for the fourth time in the second round. Johansson has never lost to Malisse in three previous meetings and carries a solid 14-4 record here at the Rogers Masters. Malisse, who won his first career ATP title this season in Delray Beach (d. Novak), advanced to the second round here for the first time in the past four years.

On the first match of Court 9, Croatia's Mario Ancic will take on France's Florent Serra. Ancic, who claimed his first ATP title this year in 's-Hertogenbosch, is 32-17 on the season and No. 17 th in the INDESIT ATP Race. The qualififier Serra advanced to the second round after second seed Lleyton Hewitt had to retire due to a stomach virus. This will be the first meeting between Ancic and Serra.

Fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko faces Tomas Berdych for a spot in the Round of 16. The Russian Davydenko holds a 2-0 lead over Berdych. Both previous meetings happened this year in Stuttgart and Rotterdam. The Russian, who claimed his fifth career ATP title this year in St. Poelten, is looking for a bid in the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. The 19-year-old Berdych also had solid results this season reaching the final in Bastad (l. Nadal) and the semifinal in last week's Washington (l. Blake).

The No. 11 seed Tommy Robredo of Spain will take on Morrocco's Younes El Aynaoui for the third time (tied 1-1). This will be their first meeting on hard courts after two clay matches in the past.

Roland Garros finalist Mariano Puerta will face 2001 Champion Andrei Pavel for the first time. Puerta is enjoying his best season after having performed superbly on clay, which helped him to break the Top 10 for the first time on his career. The Argentine, who currently lies in 9th position in the INDESIT ATP 2005 Race, is playing for the first time of the season on a hard court ATP event. Pavel, who reached the final in Munich (l. to Nalbandian), is 9-3 here at the Rogers Masters.

Olivier Rochus and Robin Soderling will play on Court 5 for the first time. Rochus advanced to one final this season in Adelaide (l. Gonzalez). Soderling was a winner in Milan this year but has not advanced past the second round since then.

Jiri Novak will take on Dominik Hrbaty for the tenth time on his career. Novak leads Hrbaty 6-3 in head-to-heads and has won their last four meetings. The former World No. 5 has seven career titles and has reached the final in Delray Beach this year (l. Malisse). Hrbaty's best result this season came two weeks ago, when he advanced to the semifinals in Los Angeles (l. Muller).

The last match on court No. 5 will feature Argentine David Nalbandian playing for the first time on his career against Karol Beck. Nalbandian, who was a winner in Munich (d. Pavel), has also advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open (l. Hewitt) and Wimbledon (l. T Johansson) this season. In 2003 Nalbandian, holds a 9-3 record here, advanced the finals losing to Andy Roddick.

Beck was a semifinalist in Indianapolis (l. Ginepri) three weeks ago. This is Beck's third appearance at the Rogers Masters where he holds a 3-2 record.

One of the most accessible tournaments

The Rogers Cup presented by National Bank is more accessible than ever thanks to the Uniprix Zone, Neighbourhood Day, and Tide & Downy Family Day.

Excellent tickets are still available for all sessions on Centre Court and for the National Bank Court. Tickets start at just $10, with the final weekend starting at just $40. For more information on this tournament or to buy tickets, call (514) 273-1515 (toll free 1-866-338-2685).

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